The Perfect Tool

I look at FO in meetings these days, and I start to shake my head. It has been the case for a while that he and I can have little altercations in meetings and smooth them over immediately afterwards, but a lot of those have come from built up frustration on my part when he goes off on a tangent, or a rave about something he knows very little about, and no-one else in the room says a word. They sit there and stare at them as if they don't dare. Now, I realise that Bubble is about to burst, and FO is a likely contender - at least in his eyes - but it's getting to the point of not needing meetings if all that's going to happen is that he spouts forth and people nod politely, but then go and do things their own way regardless.
That's a problem. Because he isn't the sharpest tool in the box, he doesn't realise how much information he lacks - he doesn't have the background and experience to ask questions, and assumes that everyone is waiting for his pearls of wisdom to drop, when in reality they're just waiting for him to shut up so that they can go away and get on with what they'd intended to do in the first place.
Then there's the other problem - more often than not, when he's ranting away, I agree with him, in principle, if not in implementation. That means that the voice of argument has turned into just the voice of agreement. Although I can help to clarify what the business needs from engineering, my being on FO's side means that I can be ignored, too.

All of this reminds me of that ever-useful management tool - arrogance. FO has gotten away with what he has - position, clout, etc - by being arrogant. Before he was arrogant, he was just another mindless executive creating little reports and presentations that proved that he was doing something. Now, he's pro-active. For someone to be pro-active, they either need to know what they're doing, or else believe strongly that they know what they're doing. I like to believe that I'm the former. I can be argued around. People in the latter class, like FO, can't be convinced that they're wrong, because they have an almost religious belief in themselves and that they're doing right for the company, and no-one else can hear the voice of God (the Chairman).
Don't get me wrong - a forceful personality, which borders on arrogance, is a great management tool. It is sometimes even essential in engineering, where the manager is not the smartest person in the room. In fact, it's often easier to play dumb under the circumstances and let everyone explain very carefully what they're doing. It gives them a little burst of self-confidence, and it gives you the full picture. If you're too arrogant, then you already know what everyone is doing, so you don't need to ask questions! Only a fool remains ignorant.

But that's where we are now: FO rampaging through the company, calling the faithful to follow, and me wondering why he's headed for the desert.
The disciples seem to be: Polo, whose recent accident has meant that he can't work a full day, so he's relying on others anyway; Gabriel, who, without Polo, folds under the smallest amount of pressure; and Tank, who I believe will be a Judas because each revelation startles him. The only one in my camp (apart from my loyal followers) is Axel, who has been dealing directly with FO for so long now that he takes anything said with a grain of salt. He's always been a reasonable chap.

But I was getting off track - from arrogance into religion, two areas never related ...

In thinking of my future, and what role or company I would like to move to next, I was thinking that I could use the arrogance tool myself a little better. It's one of many I like to wield. I'm not too bad at using it, when necessary - in fact, I've been called a master.
I think that's what was meant when someone once called me a bit of a tool.